Benefits Of Work

October 5, 1986

A score or more men and women from all over Central Florida spend weekends working without pay for three Seminole County cities. Though some no doubt do their work grudgingly, it is a good program, benefiting taxpayers and the workers, in more ways than one.

It is just too bad that judges, the sheriff's department and more potential users of the service are not exploring ways to expand the program.

The workers are those who have been sentenced to weekend community work after being found guilty of various offenses such as driving without a license or passing bad checks. They might paint, do landscaping work, clean trash from the Little Wekiva River or cleanup a lakefront.

Whatever the assignment, it beats sitting inside a jail.

This program also is profitable for the cities. Getting 160 hours of labor -- from a 10-person crew -- for the cost of supervision alone is nothing to sneeze at. For the taxpayer, in addition to free work for city hall, the program is a great alternative to building expensive jail space. Other benefits include meting out punishment without the convicted losing out on work at their jobs: Welfare costs are reduced.

Robert L. Sickler, who supervises the Alternative Community Services Program, says needs of the user cities now just about balance the supply of labor, but he worries about the increase in minor crimes cold weather brings. The user cities are Casselberry, Altamonte Springs and Longwood. Oviedo has just dropped out, saying it cannot afford the cost of supervision.

That is unfortunate. It is a lot cheaper to run an alternative sentencing program than to build jails to accommodate public cries for harsher punishment.